Renting a scooter in Florence

Where to get a motorino (moped or scooter) in Florence

Motorini

You can rent your own scooter or take a guided Vespa tour to explore Florence the way most Florentines do: by motorino.

Just follow these safety rules and in no time you will be weaving in and out of traffic and escaping the tourist hordes to head out and discover the amazing hills hemming the city center.

Renting your own scooter in Florence

Useful Italian

scooter - motorino or scooter
rental - noleggio
two hours - due ore
one day - un giorno
helmet - casco

» more

There is only one main central shop where you can rent a motorino (motor scooter) in Florence, just northeast of the leather market and train station–area hotels.

However, there is also a service that will deliver you a Vespa (or bike) directly to your hotel, B&B, rental, or whereever you are staying.

  • Alinari, Via San Zanobi 38r (tel. +39-055-280-500; www.alinarirental.com)
    - €15 per hour, €35 for 5 hours, €55 per day for a 125cc motorino.
  • Ecorent, [Delivers vehicles to your hotel or wherever!] (tel. +39-050-777-461 or 348-871-6221, www.ecorent.net)
    - From €50 per day.

Florence Vespa & moped tours

 

On smart scootering

Everyone will tell you never to rent a scooter in Italy. They say motorini are too dangerous, too unstable, too unpredictable, and the surrounding traffic is too insane.

They say you'll inevitably get into an accident and return home with, if you're lucky, an ugly road rash from skidding through gravel in your shorts at 30mph (and, if you're unlucky, a cracked skull).

Poppycock. I rent scooters in Italy all the time and the worst injury I've ever suffered was a bent-back thumbnail once when I misjudged flicking the start button. The real issue is that people don't treat scooters with respect. They're just too cute: like baby motorcycles, or bikes pretending to be grown-ups with an engine and everything. Aww. Plus, they're just so much darn fun!

As a result, many people drive around, without a helmet, at high speeds. They rubberneck the sights, chat with their companion behind them, or sit there texting with one hand and steering with the other. That's just dumb. Remember: a scooter is essentially an undersized, underpowered, under-stabilized motorcycle.

It's not so much that scooters are dangerous as it is tourists are stupid (not people: tourists. People who are perfectly sane, rational, and responsible at home often transform into giddy idiots after just a few hours on an exciting, exotic, sun-drenched vacation).

Scooters also fool you into thinking you can join the cars racing all around as if an equal. You're not equal. You are perched precariously atop a tiny scrap of metal and plastic with wheels. The drivers of the cars are cocooned in a protective metal shell padded by airbags and such. If you get hit by a car, you'll be road kill; they'll probably just think they hit a bad pothole.

Motorino driving tips for Florence

Yes, scooters are dangerous—though not much more so than walking—and yes the traffic in Italy is atrocious, doubling the danger, so take precautions:

  • Wear a helmet (casco).
  • Stay off major roads as much as possible.
  • Drive cautiously.
  • Obey all traffic signs.
  • Keep your eyes on the road and on the surrounding traffic, not the sights.
  • Don't weave in and out of heavy traffic or jump-start a red light before it turns green (even through all the other scooters are doing it).

In other words: do no, under any circumstances, drive like the locals, who are used to the traffic rules and have been riding a motorino since the age of 14.

Tips & links

Motorino (scooter) rental

Alinari
Via San Zanobi 38r
tel. +39-055-280-500
www.alinarirental.com

Ecorent
Delivers to your hotel
tel
. +39-050-777-461 or 348-871-6221
www.ecorent.net

Other useful links
How long does Florence take?

Planning your day: Florence would well be worth a week, but you can still fit a lot into just a day or three.

To help you get the most out of your limited time in the Cradle of the Renaissance, here are some perfect itineraries, whether you have one, two, or three days to spend in Florence.

» Florence itineraries

Florence tours

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Motorino (scooter) rentals
Alinari
Via San Zanobi 38r
tel. +39-055-280-500
www.alinarirental.com

Ecorent
Delivers to your hotel
tel
. +39-050-777-461 or 348-871-6221
www.ecorent.net


Other useful links

Florence tourist information
Via Cavour 1R
tel. +39-055-290-832
www.firenzeturismo.it

Sightseeing
  • Florence rail station
  • Firenze Santa Maria Novella: Grandistazioni.it, Piazza S. Maria Novella (in the NW corner of the center)
  • Bus to center: C2 (but it's just a few blocks; you can walk)
  • Bus to Oltrarno: 11, D
  • Car resources
  • Emergency service/tow: tel. 803-116
  • Highway agency: Autostrade.it (traffic info, serivce areas, toll calculator, weather)
  • Italian automotive club (~AAA): Aci.it
  • ZTLs: Ztl-italia.blogspot.com (lightly outdated, but handy, links to cities' traffic-free zones)
  • Transport Florence—Livorno cruise terminal
  • Viator.com (private car: 90 min, €40–€260)
  • Trenitalia.com (train: 68–100 min, €9.10) + Livorno port-station transfer (€1 bus; €20–€30 taxi)
Train tix

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